The US does not have an official language. English is kind of de facto official, but there is no federally designated official language. And when someone gets their American citizenship, they are American by nationality. This guy may say he’s Chinese by ethnicity, but he’s now American by nationality.
Also, you may have your citizenship status viewed different ways by different countries. The United States will only acknowledge your US citizenship when you become naturalized. Your country of birth may acknowledge both citizenships and consider you a dual-citizen.
30 states have named their own official languages. All of those include English, but some also name native languages (Hawaiian in Hawaii, three dialects of Sioux in South Dakota, and 20 different native languages in Alaska). American Samoan (Samoan), the Northern Marianas Islands (Chamorro), Guam (Chamorro and Carolinian), and Puerto Rico (Spanish) also have other official languages alongside English. New Mexico has no official language, but has given Spanish special recognition since it joined the union in 1912, and has been one of several states with "English Plus" laws encouraging bilingualism since the early 1990s. Several others have a specific list of languages in which government documents and services must be provided (for example, French in Louisiana).
The underground railroad builder comment referred to a couple of things. Lots of Chinese came over in the mid-1800s to build railroads, or that's what they wound up doing anyway. And the underground railroad was an organization that helped slaves escape to the north. It was definitely geared toward an American audience, and I'm not sure how many Americans would have caught it.
The darker details being left out here are that the reason Chinese Immigrants were used so widely to build the railroads that traverse the expanse of this large nation during it's westward expansion was because it's very advantageous when having a very dangerous job to do, to also have a large group of people that are considered expendable because there are lots of them, they're desperate, and you don't give a shit what happens to them. For example, if you needed to dangle somebody over the side of a cliff with dynamite by a rope and slowly lower them down, it's helpful to have such a group of people to do it since there's a significant chance of them blowing up or falling to their death, and also maybe blowing up on impact. Which is also the origin of an old American expression that you're probably not familiar with, "Not a China man's chance!"
I think you mean non Americans. As an American I definitely got it and thought it was absolutely brilliant, clever and quite funny!!! The band half Asian and black is already funny!
@@kenlang1070 no. They meant that you're one of the Americans that would get it, but most Americans don't know anything about their own history, or have some perverted version of it.
@@richiecabral3602 not true. Every American learns about the trans continental railroad and slavery of course. What's the point of the joke if no one gets it?!?! Half the population have a three digit IQ and if they grew up in America they got the joke. I agree many don't, but many do!
In the 19th century, we came within 1 vote of designating German a co-official language along with English. 20th century history would for sure have been different if that had happened.
You seemed confused by the name of his rap. It’s called that because Asian immigrants built most railroads. And escaped slaves left through the Underground Railroad. It’s actually kinda clever
@@flytyme I understand that.That was her mistake which a lot of people do. She calls people from the USA Americans and the people from Canada Canadians. So when I answered the question, I corrected it. I could have said Mexico, Brazil and so on. I just said Canada since most people think we are more similar. It doesn't matter which but only in the USA, you will never be called an immigrant. Your response should be directed at her, not me.
@@skirtchaser40 I always see comments from people not from the USA expressing frustration, or laughing at the "ignorance" of people from the USA calling themselves American, as if people from the USA co-opted the term. The English were calling people who lived in what is now the USA British-American or even just Americans even before the colonies declared their independence. For the most part, it stuck. I've read books and seen films in languages other than English (not translations or subtitles) and people from the USA are referred to as "American" while other people from the western hemisphere are not. I've watched sporting events from other countries and the commentators (not from the USA) will refer to the athletes from the USA as Americans, while other participants who are also by definition "American" are not. It's not universal, but while geographically obviously everyone from the western hemisphere is American, the real world reality is different. People who are not from the USA like to pretend that is just yet another weird thing that people from the USA do, but in truth for a great many people in the world USA = American. Fair or unfair, right or wrong, that is the real world reality
@@skirtchaser40 Trust me, there are a LOT of people in the USA that will still call you an immigrant or call you by the nationality of the country you moved here from if you moved here from another country, regardless of your citizenship status.
Video idea: How to Spot an American. To a European he looks American. But to a lot of Americans, he looks (and sounds) foreign. A common complaint among immigrants to the U.S. is that they're always seen as foreign no matter how long they've been here. It sometimes even extends to Asians or Hispanics who were born in America. The U.S. has no official language. English is by far the majority language, and most of our signs and official documents are in English (although it's sometimes possible to get documents in other languages). One place I know that has street signs in a language other than English is Chinatown in San Francisco (and also the Chinatown in Oakland). If you become a naturalized American citizen, your nationality is American. You retain your ethnicity. There are Americans who claim foreign ethnicity (like Irish, or Chinese, or Persian), even though their families have been in the U.S. for several generations. The underground railroad was a secret system before the Civil War by which slaves would escape to the north (even to Canada). Many of the workers who built the transcontinental railroad (which connected the east and west coasts of the U.S. in the mid-19th century) were Chinese. So someone who's half Black and half Chinese would be an underground railroad builder. I can see why you didn't get this - it depends on historical cultural knowledge. The joke is a bit of a stretch even if you do get the references. The business of sagging your pants comes from prison, where inmates are often given ill-fitting clothes from a donations box. In gangsta rap circles, if you wanted to look tough, you'd dress like you were in prison. Pretty sad, IMO. Fortunately, this style seems to have faded away. Personally, I find Jimmy O Yang pretty funny. I think his humor may not translate well for someone who didn't grow up in the U.S.
I think it was the author Neil Gaiman who walked into Mexico, and could not walk back into the US because he forgot his passport. He spent a few hours in the small concrete room waiting for someone to bring him his papers. The trope of Asian parents and their kids education must be true. It comes up a lot.
Maybe I'm not a typical American. but I've been mistaken for a local in Europe several times. Maybe it's my height of 197 cm, or just that I know my height in cm. Once, a guy started talking to me in German, and I responded, "Sprech langsamer bitte, oder auf Englisch." He was relieved, since he was Dutch, and said his English was much better than his German.
7:57 There really is no official language in the United States. Most documents, signs are in English since the majority of people speak and read English. Living in a Texas border town some signs and street names are English some in Spanish. In central Texas some towns have the street sings in English and German. A lot of the naming of towns, streets, building are named after the immigrants that founded the area. One of the oldest dance halls in texas is called Gruene Hall.. German spelling of Green
Occassionally, someone on the right will argue for making English our national language, but it smacks of xenophobia and as noted, there are immigrant areas that accommodate the language of the locals. Americans like local control and the reality is that English is the de facto national language, but gov services are available in multiple languages.
Love Jimmy ! He was in Space Force. He does a bit about soap which is pretty funny, (kinda gross but). He does look very young. The Dragon Ball bit you missed in a previous joke. He mentioned how he used fake Asian holidays to get out of helping friends move and used the Dragon Ball Lychee holiday as an example.
As a country of immigrants, the US considers you an American once you have a US passport, regardless of where you come from. That's why many Americans use hyphens (Egyptian-American, French-American) because nationality (as well as ethnicity) isn't always one or the other. It's kinda like how a child born in Ireland (at least since 2005) without an Irish citizen parent isn't considered an Irish citizen. But they can become naturalized to become Irish.
I once walked from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico. This was pre-9-11 when security was not so strict. Like you, I was suprised when I was not asked for I.D. to enter the country. Upon setting foot in Mexico, I was immediately spotted as a tourist. Perhaps it was my polo shirt and camera bag. Within the first 100 yards of the border I was approached in rapid succession by at least five men, each dressed in white pants and white button down shirt. Each one asked me variation of the same question. "Cab?" "No," with increasing exasperation to each inquiry, "I do not need a cab." It was the final guy who explained I was being offered a service in addition to the cab ride. (In his case, it was to take me "to a girl for a massage." Answer was still no.)
El Paso had a trolley (basically a bus) that ran people round trip to "the market", years ago. Juarez was a city that was different than any other city I'd been to.
The US does not have an official language. The predominant language is English, but more and more of our traffic signs are using the international symbols, instead of being in English. But in the Southwestern states our airports and other professional venues have announcements in English and Spanish. :-)
I've been to London, Rome and Paris. Every time someone stopped me and asked for directions. So I don't think you guys can spot Americans that easy, and I'd think that I really look American. For the most part street signs are in English but information signs are in pictograms like in Europe. Also there are parts of the country where the signs are in both English and the local language.
I'm an american guy and I enjoyed his comedy. He was pretty funny while not being way too over dramatic about being asian. I'm going to look more of his comedy up!
Hi Diane! I am actually half Japanese, but have a 100% American Diet. And I have crossed the border from Tijuana to Mexico and yes, the line can be huge. But at the time me and my friends were in the Navy, so we didn't normally have a problem crossing. One time though some friends of mine got in trouble at the border, so me and a friend (who spoke fluent Spanish) had to rescue them. They were really drunk and it was a fun ride back to San Diego. Have a great weekend!
"Underground railroad Building" is a play on words. Before and during the American Civil War escaped slaves escaped on foot north to freedom on what was called the Underground Railroad. It was not underground nor a railroad. It was a network of hiding places. During the 1860's Chinese were first recognized in the American West as railroad builders. They did a lot of the work on the Western end of the first Transcontinental railroad.
Being America and being part Asian myself I can completely identify with that dudes parents. You have to go to school and get good grades....even if I didn't care and only wanted to chat up the substitute teacher all day.
My poor dad, when he was tan (in the summer) people would always speak Spanish to him, and he’d be like, “I don’t speak Spanish.” and he would get these looks and questions. So, anyway, he had to have his birth certificate with him when we went to Mexico because they always tried to keep him there. (He’s of Scotch-Irish decent btw, there is absolutely nothing Latin about his genes)
I send my thoughts and condolences to anyone with family or friends in Creeslough, County Donegal. Diane, I hope you've no friends or family affected by the blast. Best wishes to everyone in the area.
The reason that America doesn't have all of their street signs in every language that is spoken is: 1. Someone would complain that one of the signs was "spelled wrong" and we would have to repaint/replace that portion of the sign the way they SAY it should be spelled. 2. Some of the languages use characters that mean something totally different from what similar looking characters mean, making them difficult to read at driving speeds. 3. Some words don't translate well from English to other languages, so if the word doesn't translate into a word in that language, what do you do? For instance, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" translates to "Pepsi Brings Your Relatives Back From the Dead" in Japanese, and "Nova" translates to "Doesn't Go" in Spanish. 4. It would create a shortage of whatever metal alloy used to create the wall of signs that would stretch from the top of the wall of signs to the ground. 5. We need to SAVE the metal for the portions of the wall on the Southern border that SOMEONE refuses to finish. 😁 The "Underground Railroad" referenced was pertaining to a series of safe-houses used during the Civil War era to smuggle slaves from the South to North, where they could become free people. The stops were created mostly by "abolitionists" in the South who put their own homes or "out-buildings" (barns, guest houses, crawl spaces under their porches) on a list that runaway slaves would receive that would guide them along to places they could hide in until it was safe to move to the next stop on the route.
San Patricios or Saint Patrick's brigade. Irish immigrants who found more common ground with their Catholic Mexican brothers than with the Protestant Americans who were discriminating against them in the US. Very interesting story!
All of my ancestors are American born at least three generations back, but both of my parents grew up with some German being spoken at home because some of their great grandparents spoke it as their first language. Had Polish great grandparents and have inherited mostly food words from them. I don't know if my paternal grandmother's Irish ancestors spoke Irish when they came over. I don't know if the British suppressed Irish at some point, but you know the phrase "they've got form". I do know that none of that part of the family used it the way that the Germans did.
1. When you are granted citizenship you pledge your allegiance to the United States and therefore are consider "American" (no matter what your country of origin). 2. "English" is the official language of the United States (and the only language recognized as "official").
The US doesn't have an official language as defined by any federal law. However, its use is so ubiquitous that it has ended up being the defacto "official" language
Yeah technically each State can define a state language. But federal level no. And a good chunk of states do have English as such but like New Mexico has English and Spanish on the docket. Some states have not defined it. Here's a link/chart. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Official_languages_of_U.S._states_and_territories
@@kenlang1070 It's just that they never got around to determine 1. At 1 point it was almost German in the late 1800s because of the number of immigrants. If they were to try and force 1 language to be the official language at this point it would be a chaotic mess
Unground Railroad Builders refers to 2 different things. 1) Unground railroad is the name that slaves used to escape slavery in the Southern US to freedom in the Northern US/Canada. 2) Railroad builders refers to the large number of Chinese immigrants who helped build the US Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s
If you saw me in Ireland with my tennis shoes, jeans, and Nike baseball cap, you’d never be able to figure out I was an American. I blend in perfectly!
I feel him on the tall girls wearing heels. Nothing wrong with it. I remember my senior year in high school, I asked this girl to prom, she said yes, and she was taller than me, and she wore high heels to the dance. The photo of that day popped on my memory on FB, and I sent it to her, and told her "you were already taller than me, and you had the audacity to wear high heels 😂😂"😂
Nothing wrong with going out with a girl who is natually taller than one even if she wears heels. I went out with a girl in my latter school years the same age as I but she was 5'10" in bare feet and she wore 3" heels when out , I'm 5' 3". We are all the same length when lying down, everything is lined up. It did earn her a few bitchy remarks though from both sexes, she just told them to F... Off in her beautiful cut glass RP accent.
The USA has no official language but English is the most used and the default. Canada has two official languages, English and French. when you enter any airport in Canada you will see every sign with the text in English and French, and every announcement repeated once in English then again in French. All federal laws must be passed in both official languages. Each province also has official languages. From British Columbia to Ontario, it's English; in Quebec, it's French; in New Brunswick it's English and French; and in Nova Scotia it's English, Mi'kmawi'simk and Gaelic. It was mind blowing when I went to Dublin and at the airport saw the signage in English, Irish and Chinese.
Two points: yes, he was an American, if he wanted to be. There's a line in National Treasure where Gates first meets Dr. Chase (Diane Kruger). He identifies her accent and says "Oh, you're German." She replies "No, I'm American; I just wasn't born here." In other words, you're an Ameican when you decide you are. As for Mexico/El Salvador, that''s not racist. l've worked with a lot of Mexican cooks the past 30 years, but sometimes you'll meet other countries. We had one cook who got very upset when we called him Mexican; he would exclaim "I'm Salvadorean!!!" 😆 I suppose it's like an Irish person being called Scottish. As others have said, there is no official language, but the de facto standard is English. Not may street signs in other languages; I believe that's why the highway system migrated to symbolic signs. However Spanish is _very_ common in automated phone systems. It's not unusual to hear (in Spanish) "press 2 to hear this in Spanish," and the courts in large cities have translators in all sorts of languages in case a defendant doesn't speak English. I believe you can request ballots in some alternative languages as well. Fun Fact: there's a restaurant near where I grew uip called The Century Inn (which makes it just contemporary in Irish years) that once was part of the Underground Railroad in Ohio. It's still in business today.
In America there was a group of people that smuggled runaway slaves out of the South and this was known as The Underground Railroad. Many Chinese workers were used to build the railroads in the western part of America.
Same thing, just about, for the border of US and Canada.. and, yes, English is the National language of America; however, we generally also translate most government and State documents into, Spanish, Chinese (Both Mandarin and Cantonese), and Tagalog (Phillipines) to ensure that a majority of the population can participate in elections and government.
The official language of the United States is officially none. English is functional in most places. Spanish and French should be most places (as well dual SAE/ Metric signs), but there is a unfortunately a large English only crowd.
Diane, there is no official language in the US, in most places all signs are in English, but you can go to east dearborn (next to Detroit) and the signs are in Arabic because they were mostly Iraqi. You can go to schools near me where 10 or more languages are spoken. In the US once you become an American you are an America. Now people can choose to say they are African American, Irish America, etc But in the end you are just an America. Chinese people came to America and built a large amount of the Railroad in the western US. Slaves from the south escaped using the "underground railroad". So since his group was half black and half asian: underground railroad builder.
Someone below already explained the underground railroad builder joke....but it was geared towards Americans and those that paid attention in history class. It's a genius joke....he's Chinese, Chinese came over and built railroads (not exactly willingly) and the underground railroad was not just an organization but also a series of safe houses, tunnels, rendezvous points for escorting escaped slaves to freedom. This is genius because one of the other guys was black and the third guy was blasian.
On being "American". There is a strong tradition of viewing all citizens as Americans in the US. We don't view ourselves as bound by shared ancestry but by shared ideals. Of course, ancestral background and customs/traditions are still important for lots of people. Hence why even Americans by birth will, for instance, also call themselves "Irish" with full conviction. They know they weren't born or raised in Ireland, but they also don't see being American as the be all and end all of who they are.
Thanks this really made me laugh. Great job Diane. (Underground Railroad refers to freeing black slaves, Railroad builders refers to the Asian's that built the western railroads Underground Railroad Builders)
Since you did not initially know if he was American or Canadian, they must share at least some of the swagger. I have been too long in the USA to really notice, but I can spot British people at 1609M
Each video, Diane's little curses sound amusing and not too harmful. But...IMAGINE if you NEVER liked or subbed, and all those curses just piled up. Life would be REALLY irritating, lol. Devious!
Regarding the traffic stop, reminds me of a joke about the American driving in Spain 🇪🇸 and runs a stop sign. A police officer pulls the American over, and of course he tells the officer that since the sign was in Spanish, he didn’t understand it. The officer makes him go back and to the American surprise the sign says “STOP” In English! As you know of all the road signs in Europe the only one which is pretty much standard is the STOP sign in English!
I would love to see her do a video on the comedy Central roast of flavor Flav I will say though if any of y'all look it up be warned it is racist like a 1942 newspaper it's bad enough that it made katt Williams who was the roast master quit doing roasts all together
The underground railroad was how slaves escaped from the south during slavery. It was a series of hidden tunnels, homes, and transportation to the northern states.
No official language in the US, but street signs are generally English, icons, or both. But interesting story - in Virginia Beach, many signs are in English and French. Apparently it's a big tourist destination for people from France.
I love Jimmy. The bit about his dad is funny. Sidenote: Why do people think if you guess someone's nationality wrong, that its racist? I hate that. It not racism, it's just ignorance.
Underground Railroad Builder - The underground Railroad was a system of safe houses and paths for American black slaves to escape the South. Harriet Tubman being the most famous "Conductor", a person who helped guide them to freedom. Railroad Builder references the very harsh conditions of East Asian immigrants who built the actual railroads in the American West. You can see a nod to them in the opening scene of Mel Brooks' movie Blazing Saddles. And the associated anti-asian racism Mel was also trying to take the power away from.
We have no official language, but street driving signs (yield, stop, right-turn, etc. are tested based on shape and color and so forth). Although some, like stop signs, say stop the test checks to see if you know what the octagonal red sign means to avoid language issues. The test itself is available in most states. One doesn't need to speak English to drive, just follow the shapes, colors, and arrows. Obvious street names are in "English" - but most streets are named after people or are numbered. If you are looking for a street name, you just look for a match. If it isn't the one you are looking for, keep going. The same is true if you are driving from city-to-city or state-to-state. The names are proper names, not language issues. If our characters are unrecognizable because you use Asian non-letter and use syllabic (not the right word, not a linguist) or your letter set is Cyrillic or whatever - it might be hard-to-impossible. I can't say. Most Latin-based languages would have little issues. Their letter set is not so different. Words might differ, but as long as the letters make sense, road signs make sense. The numbers for distance might be a little different. We use miles. There's no conversion on MOST signs. Changing the signs is VERY costly because they are specially made. A person driving a vehicle made after 1970 should almost certainly have a dashboard that shows either BOTH mp/h and kp/h OR can be switched. since US signs are labeled in miles, set the dash to mp/h and you'll be able to figure out safe speeds and distances. Most modern cars include other options on their dash.
I think he makes good observations about the US. I enjoy his standup. He’s also a good actor, too. He has a prominent role on the Netflix original series Space Force. At the national level (federal level), there’s no official language for the US. However, several states do have official languages. Most have English as one of the official languages and then may have others. Alaska has over 20 official languages while Hawaii has both Hawaiian and English and that’s it. Same with the territories. For the most part English is considered the common or working language. It’s the most widely spoken language in the US with around 240 million speakers. And so usually road signs are just in English, but there are places where they may be in multiple languages. The city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma has signs in English and Cherokee. There are places in Louisiana, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota among others where signs are multilingual. Likewise there’s places in DC where signs are in multiple languages...though not road signs. I have seen some “international” standard signs pop up in parts of my state. If I didn’t have cousins who’ve been overseas or if I hadn’t been to Mexico, I might not have realized that they’re an international standard (also playing with LEGOs as a kid and road signs are international standard). Same with the Japanese exit sign (green with a human figure walking through a door and an arrow pointing the direction of the exit). I just took my niece to a concert at a mid-sized venue in the nearby metropolitan area and the venue had both the American standard EXIT signs and the Japanese standard exit signs at it (side by side). We both knew what they met via different reasons and commented to each other that we thought it was interesting the venue was using both. I’ll admit I have often wondered why we didn’t have road signs in at least the top 3, top 5, or top 10 most spoken languages in the US. Or maybe the top 3/5/10 most spoken languages by visitors to the US in at least areas that have a lot of foreign tourists. I mean, the businesses in those areas seem to have such signs (likewise in neighborhoods where other languages besides English is spoken businesses will have signs in different languages). Top 10 most spoken languages in the US 1: English 2: Spanish 3: Mandarin 4: Tagalog 5: Vietnamese 6: Arabic 7: French 8: Korean 9: Russian 10: German In my city of 51,000 the languages spoken are English, Spanish, Marshallese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Punjabi, Farsi, Arabic, Albanian, Italian, Hindi, Tamil, and Mandarin (English is the largest followed by Spanish and Marshallese which are close in numbers and then Korean, the rest of the languages are spoken by a much smaller number of persons). I mean once he gets his citizenship he’s an American as far as both the government and society are concerned. He can refer to himself as a hyphenated American (Chinese-American), but he’s an American with or without a hyphen. Like if you got US citizenship, you’d be an American. You could say you were an Irish-American (much more literally than those who are many generations removed from their ancestors who first immigrated), but still an American either way with or without a hyphen. Being an American is more about an idea than it is an ethnicity, race, language, etc. At least that’s what we’re taught in school.
No, when you gain American citizenship you are officially an American. Some people are dual citizens, but apparently you have to renounce any allegiance to any "Crown." I'm not sure about other countries and their leaders, but that's just what I've heard. Also, most naturalized Americans probably know more about our history, Constitution, etc. then most naturally born American kids...
"Underground Railroad Builder" The Underground Railroad was an escape route for black slaves to get to Canada, were slavery was already abolished by 1793. Most of the railway systems in the USA and Canada were originally built by Chinese labourers.
While there might not be a official US language you can get government forms in multiple languages such as English Spanish chinese vietnamese Korean if they have them available
Hi Diane! I was just watching your first George Carlin reaction video. I’m glad that I got to see you again before my job gets too busy. Give Chewie a tummy rub for me.
On the Underground Railroad Builder bit the joke is that the major slave smuggling operation to get them to freedom in the north was called the Underground Railroad and one of the few jobs available to Chinese immigrants around that time was working on the international railway system. It's a clever bit of wordplay but I can see why it might go over the head of someone not terribly familiar with 19th century US history.
The Underground Railroad was a clandestine network of free Black people and Black Allies find freedom (usually through the woods and/or tunnels, usually in the middle of the night). Chinese people in states along the west coast where very often (and stereotypically) railroad workers. So they are collectively ethnically self-deprecating their friend group by calling the rap song “Underground Railroad Workers.” I have seen Jimmy before, and I do like a lot of his jokes, but they are often hit or miss for me. Have a good weekend, my commercial-looking, witty blonde friend.
15:35 American here, so I can actually kind of explain the joke. My US History is a little bit rusty, but from what I remember, the underground railroad was a tunnel used by african american slaves about 30 years before the american civil war so that they could flee to canada and start a better life. I imagine with just that information alone you can figure out the joke lmao
Jimmy O Yang was in Crazy Rich Asians. Diane: Asians often look younger than other people. I’m half Asian. Last January I tried to buy cold medicine with alcohol (NyQuil). The cashier wouldn’t sell me it to because she thought I was 18. I am 48- literally 48. I get this All The Time- I am not complaining. 😂
To your question Miss Jennings he is Asian American I believe he is Chinese American very nice young fella I actually met him when I was in California last very nice guy got a picture with him
@@sck2984 yeah man that's why I changed the post originally that was my bad I don't know why I thought he was Korean but I think I might be thinking of somebody else
Im chinese australian, im 36 and people still think i havent been out of school long! We all look young! I use the "i dont speak english" whenever i get busted by ticket inspectors on public transport, i havent been fined as a result As for nationality, you assume the one you are a citizen of, its the ethnicity v nationality debate
USA is one of the few countries that doesn't have a state religion or official language. As the comedian mentioned in his joke, most street signs are non-lingual - they're arrows and commonly recognized pictures. In some towns with a large non-English speaking citizenry, you could see signs in two languages. It's a local thing. Interstates and such are in English because that's what most people speak, they couldn't adjust them for second languages in each different area. When I was a kid (1960s) if you asked someone in America their "nationality" they would say what they were ethnically, like Polish or Irish. It was assumed you understood they were American citizens. I've even seen old baseball cards where on the back with the player's stats it would say something like "Nationality: Scotch-Irish". Speaking of baseball...a while back you mentioned how Europeans think it's very conceited that the champion of US major league baseball's "World Series" is the "World Champion" when they're just the champion of America. Actually, around half of all US major league players are from somewhere else. My favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, has (or has had in recent seasons) players from the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Australia, Cuba, Germany and others. These aren't American citizens who were born overseas and came over as kids, they're citizens of these other countries but come here to play baseball - so it really is the best players in the world - not just America - competing.
The US does not have an official language. English is kind of de facto official, but there is no federally designated official language. And when someone gets their American citizenship, they are American by nationality. This guy may say he’s Chinese by ethnicity, but he’s now American by nationality.
In different words. In the USA a "naturalized citizen" is for all legal purposes, 100% 'mercan.
And that entitles them to complain about the united states and have Americans to start actually being interested with it
Also, you may have your citizenship status viewed different ways by different countries. The United States will only acknowledge your US citizenship when you become naturalized. Your country of birth may acknowledge both citizenships and consider you a dual-citizen.
30 states have named their own official languages. All of those include English, but some also name native languages (Hawaiian in Hawaii, three dialects of Sioux in South Dakota, and 20 different native languages in Alaska). American Samoan (Samoan), the Northern Marianas Islands (Chamorro), Guam (Chamorro and Carolinian), and Puerto Rico (Spanish) also have other official languages alongside English.
New Mexico has no official language, but has given Spanish special recognition since it joined the union in 1912, and has been one of several states with "English Plus" laws encouraging bilingualism since the early 1990s. Several others have a specific list of languages in which government documents and services must be provided (for example, French in Louisiana).
@@MWSin1 very interesting!
The underground railroad builder comment referred to a couple of things. Lots of Chinese came over in the mid-1800s to build railroads, or that's what they wound up doing anyway. And the underground railroad was an organization that helped slaves escape to the north. It was definitely geared toward an American audience, and I'm not sure how many Americans would have caught it.
I should have hoped Americans would have understood Underground Railroad
The darker details being left out here are that the reason Chinese Immigrants were used so widely to build the railroads that traverse the expanse of this large nation during it's westward expansion was because it's very advantageous when having a very dangerous job to do, to also have a large group of people that are considered expendable because there are lots of them, they're desperate, and you don't give a shit what happens to them. For example, if you needed to dangle somebody over the side of a cliff with dynamite by a rope and slowly lower them down, it's helpful to have such a group of people to do it since there's a significant chance of them blowing up or falling to their death, and also maybe blowing up on impact. Which is also the origin of an old American expression that you're probably not familiar with, "Not a China man's chance!"
I think you mean non Americans. As an American I definitely got it and thought it was absolutely brilliant, clever and quite funny!!! The band half Asian and black is already funny!
@@kenlang1070 no. They meant that you're one of the Americans that would get it, but most Americans don't know anything about their own history, or have some perverted version of it.
@@richiecabral3602 not true. Every American learns about the trans continental railroad and slavery of course. What's the point of the joke if no one gets it?!?! Half the population have a three digit IQ and if they grew up in America they got the joke. I agree many don't, but many do!
The USA has no offical language but the English language is used for government/legal/business type stuff
It is, but so is Spanish, German, Vietnamese and Cantonese.
Depending on where you live.
It's done in other languages to better support the communities but English is still the primary... gov'ment worker here lol
In the 19th century, we came within 1 vote of designating German a co-official language along with English. 20th century history would for sure have been different if that had happened.
You seemed confused by the name of his rap. It’s called that because Asian immigrants built most railroads. And escaped slaves left through the Underground Railroad. It’s actually kinda clever
Very clever indeed!
When you are American, you are an American.
There is no other country like that, not even Canada. It is one of the best things about the USA.
@@skirtchaser40 Canadians are Americans. Everyone in the western hemisphere is American.
@@flytyme I understand that.That was her mistake which a lot of people do. She calls people from the USA Americans and the people from Canada Canadians. So when I answered the question, I corrected it. I could have said Mexico, Brazil and so on. I just said Canada since most people think we are more similar. It doesn't matter which but only in the USA, you will never be called an immigrant. Your response should be directed at her, not me.
@@skirtchaser40 I always see comments from people not from the USA expressing frustration, or laughing at the "ignorance" of people from the USA calling themselves American, as if people from the USA co-opted the term. The English were calling people who lived in what is now the USA British-American or even just Americans even before the colonies declared their independence. For the most part, it stuck. I've read books and seen films in languages other than English (not translations or subtitles) and people from the USA are referred to as "American" while other people from the western hemisphere are not. I've watched sporting events from other countries and the commentators (not from the USA) will refer to the athletes from the USA as Americans, while other participants who are also by definition "American" are not. It's not universal, but while geographically obviously everyone from the western hemisphere is American, the real world reality is different. People who are not from the USA like to pretend that is just yet another weird thing that people from the USA do, but in truth for a great many people in the world USA = American. Fair or unfair, right or wrong, that is the real world reality
@@skirtchaser40 Trust me, there are a LOT of people in the USA that will still call you an immigrant or call you by the nationality of the country you moved here from if you moved here from another country, regardless of your citizenship status.
Jimmy O. Yang bringing the US history jokes. That was good one that went over Diane's head there at the end.
Video idea: How to Spot an American.
To a European he looks American. But to a lot of Americans, he looks (and sounds) foreign. A common complaint among immigrants to the U.S. is that they're always seen as foreign no matter how long they've been here. It sometimes even extends to Asians or Hispanics who were born in America.
The U.S. has no official language. English is by far the majority language, and most of our signs and official documents are in English (although it's sometimes possible to get documents in other languages). One place I know that has street signs in a language other than English is Chinatown in San Francisco (and also the Chinatown in Oakland).
If you become a naturalized American citizen, your nationality is American. You retain your ethnicity. There are Americans who claim foreign ethnicity (like Irish, or Chinese, or Persian), even though their families have been in the U.S. for several generations.
The underground railroad was a secret system before the Civil War by which slaves would escape to the north (even to Canada). Many of the workers who built the transcontinental railroad (which connected the east and west coasts of the U.S. in the mid-19th century) were Chinese. So someone who's half Black and half Chinese would be an underground railroad builder. I can see why you didn't get this - it depends on historical cultural knowledge. The joke is a bit of a stretch even if you do get the references.
The business of sagging your pants comes from prison, where inmates are often given ill-fitting clothes from a donations box. In gangsta rap circles, if you wanted to look tough, you'd dress like you were in prison. Pretty sad, IMO. Fortunately, this style seems to have faded away.
Personally, I find Jimmy O Yang pretty funny. I think his humor may not translate well for someone who didn't grow up in the U.S.
He sounds very American. And I think he looks very American, I can see why Europeans would see him and go “American”.
Yes, how to spot an American from his "swagger"
I think it was the author Neil Gaiman who walked into Mexico, and could not walk back into the US because he forgot his passport. He spent a few hours in the small concrete room waiting for someone to bring him his papers. The trope of Asian parents and their kids education must be true. It comes up a lot.
My Grand Parents always said they were Danish Americans. They made their kids learn English and only spoke Danish when they were alone.
Maybe I'm not a typical American. but I've been mistaken for a local in Europe several times. Maybe it's my height of 197 cm, or just that I know my height in cm. Once, a guy started talking to me in German, and I responded, "Sprech langsamer bitte, oder auf Englisch." He was relieved, since he was Dutch, and said his English was much better than his German.
7:57 There really is no official language in the United States. Most documents, signs are in English since the majority of people speak and read English. Living in a Texas border town some signs and street names are English some in Spanish. In central Texas some towns have the street sings in English and German. A lot of the naming of towns, streets, building are named after the immigrants that founded the area. One of the oldest dance halls in texas is called Gruene Hall.. German spelling of Green
Occassionally, someone on the right will argue for making English our national language, but it smacks of xenophobia and as noted, there are immigrant areas that accommodate the language of the locals. Americans like local control and the reality is that English is the de facto national language, but gov services are available in multiple languages.
Love Jimmy ! He was in Space Force. He does a bit about soap which is pretty funny, (kinda gross but). He does look very young. The Dragon Ball bit you missed in a previous joke. He mentioned how he used fake Asian holidays to get out of helping friends move and used the Dragon Ball Lychee holiday as an example.
We don't have any official languages but English is the lingua franca
As a country of immigrants, the US considers you an American once you have a US passport, regardless of where you come from. That's why many Americans use hyphens (Egyptian-American, French-American) because nationality (as well as ethnicity) isn't always one or the other. It's kinda like how a child born in Ireland (at least since 2005) without an Irish citizen parent isn't considered an Irish citizen. But they can become naturalized to become Irish.
I once walked from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico. This was pre-9-11 when security was not so strict. Like you, I was suprised when I was not asked for I.D. to enter the country. Upon setting foot in Mexico, I was immediately spotted as a tourist. Perhaps it was my polo shirt and camera bag. Within the first 100 yards of the border I was approached in rapid succession by at least five men, each dressed in white pants and white button down shirt. Each one asked me variation of the same question. "Cab?" "No," with increasing exasperation to each inquiry, "I do not need a cab."
It was the final guy who explained I was being offered a service in addition to the cab ride. (In his case, it was to take me "to a girl for a massage." Answer was still no.)
El Paso had a trolley (basically a bus) that ran people round trip to "the market", years ago. Juarez was a city that was different than any other city I'd been to.
Weird. I’m from El Paso. So funny seeing someone mention home here ! lol.
"Underground railroad builder" lol That was clever and funny. And probably offensive.
The US does not have an official language. The predominant language is English, but more and more of our traffic signs are using the international symbols, instead of being in English. But in the Southwestern states our airports and other professional venues have announcements in English and Spanish. :-)
I've been to London, Rome and Paris. Every time someone stopped me and asked for directions. So I don't think you guys can spot Americans that easy, and I'd think that I really look American.
For the most part street signs are in English but information signs are in pictograms like in Europe. Also there are parts of the country where the signs are in both English and the local language.
I'm an american guy and I enjoyed his comedy. He was pretty funny while not being way too over dramatic about being asian.
I'm going to look more of his comedy up!
Hi Diane! I am actually half Japanese, but have a 100% American Diet. And I have crossed the border from Tijuana to Mexico and yes, the line can be huge. But at the time me and my friends were in the Navy, so we didn't normally have a problem crossing. One time though some friends of mine got in trouble at the border, so me and a friend (who spoke fluent Spanish) had to rescue them. They were really drunk and it was a fun ride back to San Diego. Have a great weekend!
"Underground railroad Building" is a play on words.
Before and during the American Civil War escaped slaves escaped on foot north to freedom on what was called the Underground Railroad. It was not underground nor a railroad. It was a network of hiding places.
During the 1860's Chinese were first recognized in the American West as railroad builders. They did a lot of the work on the Western end of the first Transcontinental railroad.
Being America and being part Asian myself I can completely identify with that dudes parents. You have to go to school and get good grades....even if I didn't care and only wanted to chat up the substitute teacher all day.
My poor dad, when he was tan (in the summer) people would always speak Spanish to him, and he’d be like, “I don’t speak Spanish.” and he would get these looks and questions. So, anyway, he had to have his birth certificate with him when we went to Mexico because they always tried to keep him there. (He’s of Scotch-Irish decent btw, there is absolutely nothing Latin about his genes)
I send my thoughts and condolences to anyone with family or friends in Creeslough, County Donegal. Diane, I hope you've no friends or family affected by the blast. Best wishes to everyone in the area.
I'm an American and am surprised how often other Americans think I'm European until they hear me speak. I think that just means I'm well dressed 😊
It has happened to me before as well. It's your clothes and the way you walk
The reason that America doesn't have all of their street signs in every language that is spoken is:
1. Someone would complain that one of the signs was "spelled wrong" and we would have to repaint/replace that portion of the sign the way they SAY it should be spelled.
2. Some of the languages use characters that mean something totally different from what similar looking characters mean, making them difficult to read at driving speeds.
3. Some words don't translate well from English to other languages, so if the word doesn't translate into a word in that language, what do you do? For instance, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" translates to "Pepsi Brings Your Relatives Back From the Dead" in Japanese, and "Nova" translates to "Doesn't Go" in Spanish.
4. It would create a shortage of whatever metal alloy used to create the wall of signs that would stretch from the top of the wall of signs to the ground.
5. We need to SAVE the metal for the portions of the wall on the Southern border that SOMEONE refuses to finish. 😁
The "Underground Railroad" referenced was pertaining to a series of safe-houses used during the Civil War era to smuggle slaves from the South to North, where they could become free people. The stops were created mostly by "abolitionists" in the South who put their own homes or "out-buildings" (barns, guest houses, crawl spaces under their porches) on a list that runaway slaves would receive that would guide them along to places they could hide in until it was safe to move to the next stop on the route.
During the Mexican/American war, Irish conscripts switched sides and fought with Mexico. Lots of Irish descendents.
Look into it, it's a great story
There were a few Irish mercenaries in Latin American history, as well
San Patricios or Saint Patrick's brigade. Irish immigrants who found more common ground with their Catholic Mexican brothers than with the Protestant Americans who were discriminating against them in the US. Very interesting story!
All of my ancestors are American born at least three generations back, but both of my parents grew up with some German being spoken at home because some of their great grandparents spoke it as their first language. Had Polish great grandparents and have inherited mostly food words from them.
I don't know if my paternal grandmother's Irish ancestors spoke Irish when they came over. I don't know if the British suppressed Irish at some point, but you know the phrase "they've got form". I do know that none of that part of the family used it the way that the Germans did.
Jimmy gained wide fame as a character on an HBO comedy series called Silicon Valley, which is fantastic! He was very funny on that show.
1. When you are granted citizenship you pledge your allegiance to the United States and therefore are consider "American" (no matter what your country of origin). 2. "English" is the official language of the United States (and the only language recognized as "official").
The US doesn't have an official language as defined by any federal law. However, its use is so ubiquitous that it has ended up being the defacto "official" language
@@NatckGogg not sure what reasons are for no official language except to foster acceptance and accomodations for non English speakers
Yeah technically each State can define a state language. But federal level no. And a good chunk of states do have English as such but like New Mexico has English and Spanish on the docket. Some states have not defined it.
Here's a link/chart.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Official_languages_of_U.S._states_and_territories
I think colonization is what’s being described here. Lol
@@kenlang1070 It's just that they never got around to determine 1. At 1 point it was almost German in the late 1800s because of the number of immigrants. If they were to try and force 1 language to be the official language at this point it would be a chaotic mess
Unground Railroad Builders refers to 2 different things. 1) Unground railroad is the name that slaves used to escape slavery in the Southern US to freedom in the Northern US/Canada. 2) Railroad builders refers to the large number of Chinese immigrants who helped build the US Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s
His explanation to the cop, he was going to pretend to be a tourist going to Dragon Ball Z anime convention. Lots of gems in this reaction thanks!
If you saw me in Ireland with my tennis shoes, jeans, and Nike baseball cap, you’d never be able to figure out I was an American. I blend in perfectly!
I feel him on the tall girls wearing heels. Nothing wrong with it. I remember my senior year in high school, I asked this girl to prom, she said yes, and she was taller than me, and she wore high heels to the dance. The photo of that day popped on my memory on FB, and I sent it to her, and told her "you were already taller than me, and you had the audacity to wear high heels 😂😂"😂
she was class, and you are still too dumb to appreciate it,,,,
Nothing wrong with going out with a girl who is natually taller than one even if she wears heels. I went out with a girl in my latter school years the same age as I but she was 5'10" in bare feet and she wore 3" heels when out , I'm 5' 3". We are all the same length when lying down, everything is lined up. It did earn her a few bitchy remarks though from both sexes, she just told them to F... Off in her beautiful cut glass RP accent.
@@tonys1636 damn straight. The important thing is to have fun.
The USA has no official language but English is the most used and the default.
Canada has two official languages, English and French. when you enter any airport in Canada you will see every sign with the text in English and French, and every announcement repeated once in English then again in French. All federal laws must be passed in both official languages.
Each province also has official languages. From British Columbia to Ontario, it's English; in Quebec, it's French; in New Brunswick it's English and French; and in Nova Scotia it's English, Mi'kmawi'simk and Gaelic.
It was mind blowing when I went to Dublin and at the airport saw the signage in English, Irish and Chinese.
I don't care what you say Diane. You are a beautiful young woman, you have a sweet, funny personality, and all your loyal fans love you.
New York City has people speaking 600 different languages.
You assess him accurately. He is apt
"This cat is uh real comedian!"
Two points: yes, he was an American, if he wanted to be. There's a line in National Treasure where Gates first meets Dr. Chase (Diane Kruger). He identifies her accent and says "Oh, you're German." She replies "No, I'm American; I just wasn't born here." In other words, you're an Ameican when you decide you are.
As for Mexico/El Salvador, that''s not racist. l've worked with a lot of Mexican cooks the past 30 years, but sometimes you'll meet other countries. We had one cook who got very upset when we called him Mexican; he would exclaim "I'm Salvadorean!!!" 😆 I suppose it's like an Irish person being called Scottish.
As others have said, there is no official language, but the de facto standard is English.
Not may street signs in other languages; I believe that's why the highway system migrated to symbolic signs. However Spanish is _very_ common in automated phone systems. It's not unusual to hear (in Spanish) "press 2 to hear this in Spanish," and the courts in large cities have translators in all sorts of languages in case a defendant doesn't speak English. I believe you can request ballots in some alternative languages as well.
Fun Fact: there's a restaurant near where I grew uip called The Century Inn (which makes it just contemporary in Irish years) that once was part of the Underground Railroad in Ohio. It's still in business today.
Jimmy did solid work in Silicon Valley as Jian Yang.
In America there was a group of people that smuggled runaway slaves out of the South and this was known as The Underground Railroad. Many Chinese workers were used to build the railroads in the western part of America.
Same thing, just about, for the border of US and Canada.. and, yes, English is the National language of America; however, we generally also translate most government and State documents into, Spanish, Chinese (Both Mandarin and Cantonese), and Tagalog (Phillipines) to ensure that a majority of the population can participate in elections and government.
The official language of the United States is officially none. English is functional in most places. Spanish and French should be most places (as well dual SAE/ Metric signs), but there is a unfortunately a large English only crowd.
He's actually on a big HBO series. Yeah, he's funny.
"He really does look about 18 doesn't he?"
So do you Diane. 😂 Good skincare!
Underground Railroad workers. American history reference you wouldn’t understand. 😂
Hi Diane, Love your channel - so you know, Jimmy O Yang became famous through a very very funny show called Silicon Valley (on HBO).
Thanks for stopping by Diane BOOP
Diane, there is no official language in the US, in most places all signs are in English, but you can go to east dearborn (next to Detroit) and the signs are in Arabic because they were mostly Iraqi. You can go to schools near me where 10 or more languages are spoken.
In the US once you become an American you are an America. Now people can choose to say they are African American, Irish America, etc But in the end you are just an America.
Chinese people came to America and built a large amount of the Railroad in the western US.
Slaves from the south escaped using the "underground railroad".
So since his group was half black and half asian: underground railroad builder.
Someone below already explained the underground railroad builder joke....but it was geared towards Americans and those that paid attention in history class. It's a genius joke....he's Chinese, Chinese came over and built railroads (not exactly willingly) and the underground railroad was not just an organization but also a series of safe houses, tunnels, rendezvous points for escorting escaped slaves to freedom. This is genius because one of the other guys was black and the third guy was blasian.
For legal purposes, nationality matches your citizenship. Casually, it can be used for your ancestry and/or place of origin.
On being "American". There is a strong tradition of viewing all citizens as Americans in the US. We don't view ourselves as bound by shared ancestry but by shared ideals.
Of course, ancestral background and customs/traditions are still important for lots of people. Hence why even Americans by birth will, for instance, also call themselves "Irish" with full conviction. They know they weren't born or raised in Ireland, but they also don't see being American as the be all and end all of who they are.
Thanks this really made me laugh.
Great job Diane.
(Underground Railroad refers to freeing black slaves, Railroad builders refers to the Asian's that built the western railroads Underground Railroad Builders)
Since you did not initially know if he was American or Canadian, they must share at least some of the swagger. I have been too long in the USA to really notice, but I can spot British people at 1609M
Underground railroad builder 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Each video, Diane's little curses sound amusing and not too harmful. But...IMAGINE if you NEVER liked or subbed, and all those curses just piled up. Life would be REALLY irritating, lol. Devious!
This was kinda fun, thanks You!
I love Jimmy Yang.
Regarding the traffic stop, reminds me of a joke about the American driving in Spain 🇪🇸 and runs a stop sign. A police officer pulls the American over, and of course he tells the officer that since the sign was in Spanish, he didn’t understand it. The officer makes him go back and to the American surprise the sign says “STOP” In English! As you know of all the road signs in Europe the only one which is pretty much standard is the STOP sign in English!
I didn’t know that he was a standup comedian! He was great in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. Good movie!
So glad you posted! 🤍🤍🤍
I would love to see her do a video on the comedy Central roast of flavor Flav I will say though if any of y'all look it up be warned it is racist like a 1942 newspaper it's bad enough that it made katt Williams who was the roast master quit doing roasts all together
The underground railroad was how slaves escaped from the south during slavery. It was a series of hidden tunnels, homes, and transportation to the northern states.
No official language in the US, but street signs are generally English, icons, or both. But interesting story - in Virginia Beach, many signs are in English and French. Apparently it's a big tourist destination for people from France.
I love Jimmy. The bit about his dad is funny.
Sidenote: Why do people think if you guess someone's nationality wrong, that its racist? I hate that. It not racism, it's just ignorance.
Underground Railroad Builder - The underground Railroad was a system of safe houses and paths for American black slaves to escape the South. Harriet Tubman being the most famous "Conductor", a person who helped guide them to freedom. Railroad Builder references the very harsh conditions of East Asian immigrants who built the actual railroads in the American West. You can see a nod to them in the opening scene of Mel Brooks' movie Blazing Saddles. And the associated anti-asian racism Mel was also trying to take the power away from.
If you get your American citizenship you are nationalized American. And a nationalized American is an American. 100%.
We have no official language, but street driving signs (yield, stop, right-turn, etc. are tested based on shape and color and so forth). Although some, like stop signs, say stop the test checks to see if you know what the octagonal red sign means to avoid language issues. The test itself is available in most states. One doesn't need to speak English to drive, just follow the shapes, colors, and arrows. Obvious street names are in "English" - but most streets are named after people or are numbered. If you are looking for a street name, you just look for a match. If it isn't the one you are looking for, keep going. The same is true if you are driving from city-to-city or state-to-state. The names are proper names, not language issues. If our characters are unrecognizable because you use Asian non-letter and use syllabic (not the right word, not a linguist) or your letter set is Cyrillic or whatever - it might be hard-to-impossible. I can't say. Most Latin-based languages would have little issues. Their letter set is not so different. Words might differ, but as long as the letters make sense, road signs make sense.
The numbers for distance might be a little different. We use miles. There's no conversion on MOST signs. Changing the signs is VERY costly because they are specially made. A person driving a vehicle made after 1970 should almost certainly have a dashboard that shows either BOTH mp/h and kp/h OR can be switched. since US signs are labeled in miles, set the dash to mp/h and you'll be able to figure out safe speeds and distances. Most modern cars include other options on their dash.
I think he makes good observations about the US. I enjoy his standup. He’s also a good actor, too. He has a prominent role on the Netflix original series Space Force.
At the national level (federal level), there’s no official language for the US. However, several states do have official languages. Most have English as one of the official languages and then may have others. Alaska has over 20 official languages while Hawaii has both Hawaiian and English and that’s it. Same with the territories. For the most part English is considered the common or working language. It’s the most widely spoken language in the US with around 240 million speakers. And so usually road signs are just in English, but there are places where they may be in multiple languages. The city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma has signs in English and Cherokee. There are places in Louisiana, New Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota among others where signs are multilingual. Likewise there’s places in DC where signs are in multiple languages...though not road signs. I have seen some “international” standard signs pop up in parts of my state. If I didn’t have cousins who’ve been overseas or if I hadn’t been to Mexico, I might not have realized that they’re an international standard (also playing with LEGOs as a kid and road signs are international standard). Same with the Japanese exit sign (green with a human figure walking through a door and an arrow pointing the direction of the exit). I just took my niece to a concert at a mid-sized venue in the nearby metropolitan area and the venue had both the American standard EXIT signs and the Japanese standard exit signs at it (side by side). We both knew what they met via different reasons and commented to each other that we thought it was interesting the venue was using both. I’ll admit I have often wondered why we didn’t have road signs in at least the top 3, top 5, or top 10 most spoken languages in the US. Or maybe the top 3/5/10 most spoken languages by visitors to the US in at least areas that have a lot of foreign tourists. I mean, the businesses in those areas seem to have such signs (likewise in neighborhoods where other languages besides English is spoken businesses will have signs in different languages).
Top 10 most spoken languages in the US
1: English
2: Spanish
3: Mandarin
4: Tagalog
5: Vietnamese
6: Arabic
7: French
8: Korean
9: Russian
10: German
In my city of 51,000 the languages spoken are English, Spanish, Marshallese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Punjabi, Farsi, Arabic, Albanian, Italian, Hindi, Tamil, and Mandarin (English is the largest followed by Spanish and Marshallese which are close in numbers and then Korean, the rest of the languages are spoken by a much smaller number of persons).
I mean once he gets his citizenship he’s an American as far as both the government and society are concerned. He can refer to himself as a hyphenated American (Chinese-American), but he’s an American with or without a hyphen. Like if you got US citizenship, you’d be an American. You could say you were an Irish-American (much more literally than those who are many generations removed from their ancestors who first immigrated), but still an American either way with or without a hyphen. Being an American is more about an idea than it is an ethnicity, race, language, etc. At least that’s what we’re taught in school.
I discovered him in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. Great movie
5:59 He's not speaking casually - American is now his nationality. Asian is his ethnicity, but he's a part of the American nation.
No, when you gain American citizenship you are officially an American. Some people are dual citizens, but apparently you have to renounce any allegiance to any "Crown." I'm not sure about other countries and their leaders, but that's just what I've heard. Also, most naturalized Americans probably know more about our history, Constitution, etc. then most naturally born American kids...
"Underground Railroad Builder" The Underground Railroad was an escape route for black slaves to get to Canada, were slavery was already abolished by 1793. Most of the railway systems in the USA and Canada were originally built by Chinese labourers.
It would be interesting if the street signs in the US were in every commonly used language. They'd be pretty big though.
someone from El Salvador wouldn't say "pinche chinito", the expression "pinche" is exclusive from Mexico 🤣
While there might not be a official US language you can get government forms in multiple languages such as English Spanish chinese vietnamese Korean if they have them available
In the Us you can order up to15 different languages of the DMV book on highway safety.
Hi Diane! I was just watching your first George Carlin reaction video. I’m glad that I got to see you again before my job gets too busy. Give Chewie a tummy rub for me.
Okie!😊
On the Underground Railroad Builder bit the joke is that the major slave smuggling operation to get them to freedom in the north was called the Underground Railroad and one of the few jobs available to Chinese immigrants around that time was working on the international railway system. It's a clever bit of wordplay but I can see why it might go over the head of someone not terribly familiar with 19th century US history.
The Underground Railroad was a clandestine network of free Black people and Black Allies find freedom (usually through the woods and/or tunnels, usually in the middle of the night). Chinese people in states along the west coast where very often (and stereotypically) railroad workers. So they are collectively ethnically self-deprecating their friend group by calling the rap song “Underground Railroad Workers.”
I have seen Jimmy before, and I do like a lot of his jokes, but they are often hit or miss for me.
Have a good weekend, my commercial-looking, witty blonde friend.
Humorful and from his personal truth
Here's an Irish curse for ya: Your nail will bend backward OWWWW
Thanks for sharing the video
this guys standup is soo funny!!😁😂😊✌
So funny, I just sent you a patreon message that my American was showing. Nice to know you already knew😁
😂 I haven’t checked in yet cos I’m out with Caitriona but accurate! 😅
@@DianeJennings Sláinte😊
15:35 American here, so I can actually kind of explain the joke. My US History is a little bit rusty, but from what I remember, the underground railroad was a tunnel used by african american slaves about 30 years before the american civil war so that they could flee to canada and start a better life. I imagine with just that information alone you can figure out the joke lmao
Jimmy O'Yang. He's Irish ☘🇮🇪🥢
English and Spanish are the two most spoken languages in the US, but as others have said, there is no official or national language.
Underground Railroad Builder was the best.
Jimmy O Yang was in Crazy Rich Asians.
Diane: Asians often look younger than other people. I’m half Asian. Last January I tried to buy cold medicine with alcohol (NyQuil).
The cashier wouldn’t sell me it to because she thought I was 18. I am 48- literally 48. I get this All The Time- I am not complaining. 😂
Best day of the week is any day with Diana keep up the good work😎😻👍
To your question Miss Jennings he is Asian American I believe he is Chinese American very nice young fella I actually met him when I was in California last very nice guy got a picture with him
He's Chinese, not Korean.
@@sck2984 yeah man that's why I changed the post originally that was my bad I don't know why I thought he was Korean but I think I might be thinking of somebody else
Diane Jimmy O is 35 years old 😄
Jimmy O. Yang was in Crazy Rich Asians.
That's the greatest thing about America when you become a citizen you are American
The comedy show "Silicon Valley" that he's in is very worth seeing. Hilarious stuff.
Im chinese australian, im 36 and people still think i havent been out of school long! We all look young!
I use the "i dont speak english" whenever i get busted by ticket inspectors on public transport, i havent been fined as a result
As for nationality, you assume the one you are a citizen of, its the ethnicity v nationality debate
Happy Friday! I really enjoy this video.Have a very good weekend.
Underground railroad, that was a witty joke. I don't think most foreigners would get that one.
USA is one of the few countries that doesn't have a state religion or official language. As the comedian mentioned in his joke, most street signs are non-lingual - they're arrows and commonly recognized pictures. In some towns with a large non-English speaking citizenry, you could see signs in two languages. It's a local thing. Interstates and such are in English because that's what most people speak, they couldn't adjust them for second languages in each different area.
When I was a kid (1960s) if you asked someone in America their "nationality" they would say what they were ethnically, like Polish or Irish. It was assumed you understood they were American citizens. I've even seen old baseball cards where on the back with the player's stats it would say something like "Nationality: Scotch-Irish". Speaking of baseball...a while back you mentioned how Europeans think it's very conceited that the champion of US major league baseball's "World Series" is the "World Champion" when they're just the champion of America. Actually, around half of all US major league players are from somewhere else. My favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, has (or has had in recent seasons) players from the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Australia, Cuba, Germany and others. These aren't American citizens who were born overseas and came over as kids, they're citizens of these other countries but come here to play baseball - so it really is the best players in the world - not just America - competing.